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FB-822 Xiphos
The FB-822 Xiphos is a long range bomber designed for the UNSC Navy towards the end of the Human-Covenant War to conduct deep penetration strikes against Covenant targets without bringing their carrier within sensor or weapons range of targets. The Xiphos saw limited success in the final years of the Human-Covenant War as no fighters with similar range existed to act as escorts, leading to missions often ending in the destruction of all bombers involved. Despite this, the Xiphos maintained an eighty-seven percent success rate in its missions, which saw further orders being placed till the end of the War and into the Post-War Era. Development History With the ongoing losses being sustained by humanity and any chance at counter-attacks being far too risky as large valuable ships were in short supply, designs for smaller ,albeit still substantially armed, long range bombers known as Penetrators were being developed. One such project was Project: GRAND SLAM. Project: GRAND SLAM was the name of the project undertaken by a company to meet the requirements put forward for new generation Penetrators. Started in 2549 during the later years of the War, Project: GRAND SLAM laid out a design for a ship far smaller than its contemporaries such as the B-65 Shortsword and the C709 Longsword but with a substantial load-out and range regardless. Initial designs, despite meeting the requirements, did so just barely. Early iterations saw a wingspan of 30m and an overall length of 24m and had a single of the newly developed Class-III X/R Rotary Ordnance Delivery System and two Class-III Hardpoints on each wing. The main cause of this was the existing Mark IV Hanely-Messer Fusion Drives which ,while providing the craft with sufficient range, were excessively large and inefficient which resulted in a more space being needed for cooling systems. The company had the option to send the new Penetrator out as it was, as it technically met the requirements. However after several weeks of deliberation the existing design was scrapped and a new one was ordered with far narrower parameters; The new design was required to have a 22-20m wingspan and a length of 16-18m, new Fusion Reactors and above all an increased weapons payload. The new design took considerably longer to make as the new OKB Karman 34F Fusion Drives had to be developed from the ground up. Despite the exceeded the development times, the new Drives did take up far less space in the ship and sported greatly improved cooling systems which allowed the ship to double upon the existing payload to eight Class-III Hardpoints, four on each wing, and a new Class-IV X/R Rotary Ordnance Delivery System Mark II which is compatible with Class-IV Hardpoint weapons to allow the ship to carry not only more but, if needed, more lethal weaponry. As a result, unlike the original design, the new design also had four defensive M9109 ASW/AC 50mm MLA's, two under the cockpit and two near the wingtips. The new design saw nearly a whole year of testing from August 2550-June 2551 when it was approved for production. However as a result of the slew of newly built technology for the bomber the overall number produced was fairly low with the first order only equipping 8 Squadrons. Operational History Variants *'FB-822 Long Range Bomber': Built in the final years of the war as a long range penetrator, the FB-822 Xiphos entered service in 2551. *'F-822 Fighter': Built on the same airframe of the FB-822, the F-822 Xiphos entered service in 2554 and features greatly improved aerodynamics, maneuverability and the replacement of the rotary launchers with enlarged ST/Medusa Missile Pods. *'FA-822 Attack/Strike Craft': Built on the same airframe of the FB-822, the FA-822 entered service in 2556 and features weaker albeit more numerous weapon systems as well as increased armor compared to the FB-822. The FA-822 features six Class-II Hardpoints on each wing with twelve Class-II Hardpoints across the underbelly of the ship. Design Specifications Avionics Propulsion and Powerplant Armaments With FB-822 Xiphos' focus on its role as a long range bomber it was rated to carry a variety of medium and heavy anti-ship and general use weapons. The bomber is equipped with eight Class-III Hardpoints with four on each wing. The hardpoints are rated to carry AGM-79C Anti-Ship Missiles which are the main weapon it uses against naval targets. ASGM-10 Missiles are used as multi-role missiles as they can be used to target both fighters and other targets. Long range strikes are conducted by using ALCM-70 cruise missiles which are used prior to deployment of shorter range weapons to soften up targets. For more conventional strikes the hardpoints can mount GBU-1223 bomb racks, which carry four bombs per rack, and are used in a conventional bombing role to strike both ground targets and naval targets. The heaviest weapons are however carried in the Class-IV X/R Rotary Ordnance Delivery System Mark II, which is a 10 round rotary launcher mounted in the center of the bomber behind the cockpit. The ordnance launcher is rated for heavier Class-IV munitions which allows the Xiphos to engage higher tonnage targets. The main anti-ship weapon is the larger AGM-89C anti-ship missiles which is capable of dealing significant damage to even mainline capital ships such as CPV-class Destroyers. In similar fashion the launcher can use the heavier ALCM-90 cruise missiles which have a greater range and larger warhead compared to the smaller ALCM-70. The launcher is also rated for the GBU-256 heavy anti-ship bomb which has been shown to be able to punch through the hulls of large capital ships such as CCS-class Battlecruisers. Both the hardpoints and rotary launcher are rated to carry MK 2556 HAVOK Nuclear Missiles should there be a need for them. For defensive weaponry the Xiphos is equipped with four M9109 ASW/AC 50mm Machine Linked Autocannons which it can use to either weaken shields prior to dropping is payload or to defend against fighters. These autocannons use electromagnetic asynchronous linear-induction motor (ALIM) technology to fire hyperdense projectiles at velocities unreachable by energy-based weaponry. This does however put great strain on the barrel and rounds do tend to burn up in-atmosphere so in most cases in-atmosphere the weapons are fired at a lower velocity. Countermeasures and Defensive Systems Targeting and Sensor Systems